State of Our Watersheds | Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

NWIFC’s 2025 State of Our Watersheds Report is now available as a PDF to download in its entirety (218 MB).

A compressed file (25 MB) is available here.

Individual chapters can be downloaded here.

The comprehensive watershed-by-watershed analysis of habitat conditions tells the story of where we’ve come from, where we are and what must be done to stay the course.

The State of Our Watersheds Report documents changing environmental conditions to hold us accountable to take the urgent action needed to protect our region’s salmon and their habitat.

The report is the result of a tremendous amount of work by the treaty tribes’ natural resources staff and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission’s Salmon, and Steelhead Habitat Inventory and Assessment Program.

Each tribal chapter focuses on habitat conditions as they relate to individual watersheds, communities, economies and treaty-reserved fishing rights. Data from tribal, federal, state and local jurisdictions and partnerships document current salmon habitat conditions, trends and shared efforts to resolve our most pressing problems.

Despite the tribes’ ongoing restoration efforts, the new report finds that explosive and sustained population growth, polluted stormwater runoff, climate change, and land-use policies that do not require net ecological gain continue to threaten marine and freshwater ecosystems and the resources, economies, and lifeways that rely on them.

Since the initial 1999 listing of Puget Sound chinook under the federal Endangered Species Act, no salmon or steelhead stocks have been delisted.

We must never forget the value of salmon to the spiritual, communal and economic vitality of tribes and the health of the watersheds that sustain us all. We aren’t managing salmon just for today. We are managing them for future generations.

If cutting harvest were the answer to restoring salmon, we would have been successful a long time ago. Tribal fishers have reduced their chinook harvest by 60-95% since the 1980s, yet salmon continue to disappear. We know this is because restoring and protecting salmon habitat is the key to salmon recovery.

While this report’s findings remain grim, there is cause for hope.

Time and time again, salmon show resilience, with a near immediate positive response to every barrier removed and restoration project completed. We must save what is left while continuing to restore what has been lost.

Our homelands boast incredible marine and freshwater environments that provide unparalleled cultural and economic values. Reconnecting the hydrology of our streams, rivers and estuaries and protecting them with buffers is necessary, regardless of jurisdiction or land use.

The tribes continue to advance solutions to support salmon recovery and treaty rights protection through gw∂dzadad, our strategy for protecting and rebuilding salmon habitat, which takes its name from the Lushootseed word meaning “Teachings of our Ancestors.”

We know the status quo isn’t working when it comes to salmon recovery. We know what the science says needs to be done. We know that we must move forward together to address habitat because it is the most important action we can take to secure salmon for future generations.

Our hope is that this collection of science and stories from each watershed inspires the change that’s needed to safeguard our region’s salmon and a sustainable future for us all.

—NWIFC Chairman Ed Johnstone